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I have found lately that very few sellers will notify you when they ship, if your item hasn't arrived in 7 days or so then I would contact them. I bought 4 items in the last 2 months and got no ship notification.

I usually ship the next business day when I make a sale. Some sellers do all of their shipping once a week, probably because they are a long way from the post office or UPS Store. Those that don't ship right away should state that in their listings, but not all of them do.

Being a patient person, I would wait a week before prodding the seller through eBay's question feature, but you would be within your rights to ask after 2-3 days.

Bought an item on Ebay for the first time. How long should I expect to wait before the item is shipped? Paypal payment was sent right after I won the auction. TIA.

I pay immediately, sometimes within seconds of auction ending.
No games. No fooling around.
I expect shipment to be made within 72 hours.

If I do not have notification of shipment within 48 to 72 hours, I send a message asking, "Has my item shipped? When can I expect to receive it?"

A week to ship is too long.
Sellers know they will be shipping it when they put it up for sale, and they determine when their auction ends.
That is enough notice for them to be ready to ship except for adding the address.

If I have not received an item in 5 days, I start worrying and send an email. If I don't get a reply back w/in 24 hours, I send another email and then consider notifying PayPal.

I have been buying on Ebay since the late 90s, and have only gotten into a dispute w/ unshipped goods on one occasion. People may be slow but 99.9% are not in the business to rip us off. However, things do get lost and I have had to track packages that were delivered to the wrong address, so I worry and start checking on things at 5 days.

And I agree - I am rarely getting notification from sellers about shipping these days.

I've sold a few items using Paypal but not on Ebay and until I did this, I had NO IDEA how long it took for Paypal to verify and send the funds! The purchaser paid by check through Paypal and it took a total of 8 business days for me to actually get the money. Paypal recommended that I NOT send the item until the funds transfer was entirely complete and, since it was a rather expensive item, I thought that was wise. I kept in touch with the purchaser via email, though, and explained the situation.

This may be why some sellers don't ship as fast as others. You may pay "instantly" via Paypal but the seller doesn't necessarily get the money fast!

When you pay through Paypal, it will let you and the seller know if the payment is an instant transfer or a pending check, along with the date of clearance. If it is pending, I let the buyer know that the item will be shipped the day of clearance, and if an instant transfer, immediately. I also print up my shipping labels through Ebay and this sends a notification to the buyer that the shipping label has been processed, along with a tracking #.

Most sellers will ship asap if item is paid for with money order or bank cashiers check or electronic fund transfer through paypal. If a personal check is used almost all sellers wait 8 to 10 days for the check to clear.
I have sold several items on ebay and always try to ship within 48 hours or less. I always notify the buyer when the item is shipped. I stopped accepting personal checks due to problems with them in the past and I inform bidders they will not be accepted.

I have gotten most of my items within 3-5 days, and I have always received a shipping notification by e-mail. The longest one took 7 days but that was an exception. I pay through Paypal linked to a CC.

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